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From Policy to Grass Roots: Educational Interventions That Target Youth...
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From Policy to Grass Roots: Educational Interventions That Target Youth NEETs

A special issue of Societies (ISSN 2075-4698).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2023) | Viewed by 6623

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Paul Flynn

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Education, University of Galway, H91 TK33 Galway, Ireland
Interests: rural NEETs; formal education; non-formal education; design research methods
Dr. Kevin Davison

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Education, University of Galway, H91 TK33 Galway, Ireland
Interests: gender and education; masculinities; literacies, science outreach; research methodologies in the postmodern condition

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Young people aged between 15 and 34 who are not in education, employment of training (NEETs) often find themselves caught between the formal education system, which they often feel is not for them, and non-formal education supports, which are sometimes inaccessible to them for a variety of reasons. In terms of accessibility to formal education pathways, the financial burden is only one of the challenges that young people and their families need to consider. In relation to the provision of non-formal educational opportunities, it can be the case that they are simply not available where NEETs live. In the case of rural settings, youth NEETs are a particularly vulnerable group.

Educational interventions that target young people and those that are part of their educational ecosystem exist at multiple interconnected levels and should, in theory, inform each other as part of an iterative, reflexive process of regiment in response to the emergent needs of the labour market. At a macro level, policy interventions can spur on funding initiatives and reform. At the meso level, national responses can empower local actors to propose grassroots interventions that may be coordinated across regions or jurisdictions. At the micro level of intention, either in formal or non-formal contexts, practitioners work with those whom the macro- and meso-level actions intended to target. This multi-layered educational intervention ecosystem is complex and there is a limited amount of published work that showcases what these interventions sought to achieve and the impact of these actions. There is even less material that knits these multilayered actions together and presents a coherent insight in the ‘how’ of what such educational interventions achieved. Therefore, this Special Issue titled “From Policy to Grass Roots: Educational Interventions that Target Youth NEETs” invites scholars and educators to share their research works and experiences in this area so that others in cognate settings might adapt, adopt or innovate to make a difference with those who need help the most.

This Special Issue seeks to uncover these heretofore often unreported practices as exemplars of best practice educational interventions from both the formal and non-formal educational sectors in the form of a series of case studies. Submissions that critically reflect on the relationship between policy and practice, across the macro, meso and micro levels of intervention described here, are welcome. In addition, best practice interventions that seek to bring the formal and non-formal education sectors together are highly encouraged.

Dr. Paul Flynn
Dr. Kevin Davison
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as conceptual papers are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Societies is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • rural NEETs
  • formal education
  • non-formal education
  • educational interventions

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 279 KiB  
Article
National Level Support Programs for Youth in Relation to Effective School-to-Work Transition: Examples of Italy, Moldova, and Latvia
by Maria Diacon, Liena Hačatrjana, Victor Juc, Victoria Lisnic and Antonella Rocca
Societies 2023, 13(9), 208; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc13090208 - 12 Sep 2023
Viewed by 1343
Abstract
The school-to-work transition is one of the trickiest steps in the life cycle of an individual because when young people complete their education and enter the labor market, they have to compete to attain a job while lacking the job experience or skills [...] Read more.
The school-to-work transition is one of the trickiest steps in the life cycle of an individual because when young people complete their education and enter the labor market, they have to compete to attain a job while lacking the job experience or skills required by employers. Across European countries, the school-to-work transition shows very different characteristics and durations, stemming from, among other factors, (1) the different provisions of services at the country level to help young people become oriented in the labor market, (2) different historical backgrounds, and even (3) the different capacities of education systems to provide the skills required by employers, despite the efforts to homogenize the national education systems, which started with the Bologna process. In this paper, we aim to compare various programs implemented within formal education at the macro-level in Italy, Moldova, and Latvia, three rather different countries in Europe, that have the goal of helping young people during various stages of this transition. The conclusion we can draw is that each of these countries needs to adopt a coordinated and integrated strategy of reforms aimed at (a) preventing early school drop-outs; (b) incentivizing the attainment of a university degree; (c) reforming school curricula; (d) closing the gap between education systems and labor market requirements; and (e) improving the services that help young people during the school-to-work transition. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Policy to Grass Roots: Educational Interventions That Target Youth NEETs)
17 pages, 723 KiB  
Article
Predictors of Secondary Education Completion across Portuguese Municipalities: Evidence from the 2009–2018 Period
by D’Jamila Garcia, Francisco Simões, Leonor Bettencourt, Cecília Aguiar, Inês Alves Ferreira, Joana Mendonça, Carla Moleiro, Antonella Rocca and Vladislava Lendzhova
Societies 2023, 13(9), 200; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc13090200 - 25 Aug 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1340
Abstract
Our overriding goal was to understand territorial inequalities regarding secondary school completion by testing which contextual factors and educational resources are associated with their change in high- and low-density Portuguese municipalities. Our analysis covered the time between 2009 and 2018, including both the [...] Read more.
Our overriding goal was to understand territorial inequalities regarding secondary school completion by testing which contextual factors and educational resources are associated with their change in high- and low-density Portuguese municipalities. Our analysis covered the time between 2009 and 2018, including both the economic crisis and the economic recovery period. Drawing mostly on publicly available data from 253 municipalities and following a Linear Mixed Model approach, we found that low-density municipalities depicted significantly greater levels of secondary school attainment by 2013 compared to high-density municipalities. Moreover, growing unemployment rates were associated with a reduction in secondary school completion rates across the assessed time points. Contrary to our expectations, higher rates of permanent teachers were associated with worse rates of secondary school completion. In addition, we found a significant increase in the rates of secondary school conclusion at higher levels of preschool enrollment among high-density municipalities. Our discussion counteracts the usual overstating of vulnerable territories’ worse educational indicators. We also underline the importance of improving secondary education indicators for reducing structural inequalities in the school-to-work transition in less affluent territories and pinpoint the importance of implementing policies, such as improving access to preschool education in Portuguese high-density municipalities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Policy to Grass Roots: Educational Interventions That Target Youth NEETs)
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12 pages, 276 KiB  
Article
Promoting Academic Success and Social Inclusion in Non-Formal Education Contexts: The Case of a North-East Region of Portugal
by Marta de Oliveira Rodrigues, Armando Loureiro, Paul Flynn, Muhammet Berigel and Sofia Marques da Silva
Societies 2023, 13(8), 179; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc13080179 - 30 Jul 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1977
Abstract
The processes leading to school failure and early school leaving are complex and involve multidimensional factors. In Portugal, as in other European countries, in the last decade, several policies, programmes, and practices have been developed to address this issue. This article focuses on [...] Read more.
The processes leading to school failure and early school leaving are complex and involve multidimensional factors. In Portugal, as in other European countries, in the last decade, several policies, programmes, and practices have been developed to address this issue. This article focuses on a socio-educational practice of the study support type developed within a national programme aimed at social inclusion and educational success located in the community. The data collected through a semi-structured interview and a focus group with socio-educational professionals allowed us to identify how the study support practice is characterised and perceived by these actors. Processes and factors of transformation that occurred in the practice regarding its mode of implementation, conceptual evolution, and specificities were also addressed. Results indicate that the practice promotes improvements in participants’ outcomes such as learning, social behaviour, integration, and autonomy; the construction of a strong and sustained relationship with significant adults from the learning point of view; and the completion of compulsory schooling and studies. Hence, the research findings highlight that participation in the practice leads to transformative processes in the academic pathways of children and young people involved in the practice concerning academic, individual, and social dimensions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue From Policy to Grass Roots: Educational Interventions That Target Youth NEETs)
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